The latest retailer, Chinese Goods Centre, announced its ban, which will go into effect within 12 months, South China Morning Post reports. On Thursday, director Wong Chow Kuen-kuen wrote:

"We are aware that a business ... should not only be about profit, it should also take on its social and environmental and conservation responsibility."

The three other retailers, called Wing On, Yue Hwa and Chinese Arts & Crafts, all announced their ivory bans last year.

Most of the city's major retailers are now ivory-free - a huge step for one of the largest transit points for illegal ivory moving from Africa to China, a country that makes up as much as 70 percent of global demand for ivory products.

Hong Kong has been taking gradual steps to take itself off the list of major ivory consumers. Last May, the world's largest ivory incineration began destroying nearly 30 tons of ivory seized from wildlife traffickers. At the time, the city's environment secretary Wong Kam-sing told reporters:

"Today's ceremony sends a loud and clear message to both the local and the international community that the Hong Kong government is determined to curb illegal trade in elephant ivory,"

But Hong Kong is far from ivory-free, as Hong Kong-based journalist and photographer Alex Hofford pointed out in National Geographic. Small retailers still sell ivory products to tourists, and Hong Kong still serves as a major hub for the illegal trade.

We also need each and everyone to stop buying ivory. The Hong Kong government could do so much more to raise awareness about this urgent issue. They could do a lot worse than start by legislating an ivory trade ban to save the magnificent African elephant before it's too late.

With the elephant poaching crisis killing some 36,000 elephants every year - that's one every 15 minutes - Hong Kong's push to become ivory free is needed more than ever.